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Towards the end of June, Nordstrom came out with x2 more Sample Packs. One, was a mix of Makeup and Skincare (dis), which wasn’t particularly exciting. The other, was this Fragrance Sample Pack, which was very enticing!

For starters, it came with a sample of Mugler Angel Eau Croisière which I was dying to sniff! The pack also included several flankers of well-loved gourmands, Prada Candy and CH Good Girl and V&R Flowerbomb and YSL Black Opium and YSL Mon Paris! I was pretty excited about the samples from Atelier Cologne and Diptyque and Replica and my belovedKilian as well! Also, most of these were new-new!

In hindsight though, I totally should’ve skipped the Fragrance Sample Pack (June) because it was mostly either floral-y florals (yuck) or overly sharp and citrus-y scents (namely Peach, ugh).

Get a Free Gift with Your $100 Beauty or Fragrance Purchase. Plus, when you spend $150 on beauty or fragrance, you’ll also receive a Bonus Gift.

I wasn’t planning on placing yet another online order with Nordstrom during Ramadan, especially since I was somewhat broke (those Ramadan Kaftans cost a pretty penny). However, there was a deal (more on that in the next post) and I got suckered into placing a “smaller” order lol Since my order was a little over $100, I qualified for the May Sample Pack.

The Makeup-y Samples included something from Fresh (lucky) while the Fragrance Samples included Alien by Mugler (super lucky) and the Hair Care Samples included stuff from AvedaandLiving Proof (super super lucky)!

I’ll be going over all the samples that arrived in the May Sample Pack, below…

Dolce Garden is a delicious new flower blossoming in a Sicilian garden. A joyful, solar aura blending citrus and cream. With Dolce Garden, the frangipani blossom joins the delightful bouquet of the Dolce family.

Did they actually put any thought into the ad for Dolce Garden? The ad seems quite… cheesy, like something you would’ve seen on tv in the late 80’s or early 90’s lol Heck, even the name and packaging seem like a such mismatch for the undeniably tropical scent.

I actually got a sample of Dolce Garden Eau de Parfum earlier from Nordstrom with a previous order (here), and instantly fell in love, to the extent that I vowed to purchase the full size (first chance I got), which was exactly what I did! Plus, I got a very sweet discount to boot!

Note to local stores: This is how to properly utilize samples. People sample the samples, and end up actually purchasing the product! See how that works?

While browsing through the New Arrivals section up on Nordstrom, I spotted an exciting new version of my belovedLight Blue called Light Blue Sun. It listed Coconut Water (which I adore in most forms) in the fragrance notes! I mean…c’mon, Light Blue + Coconut Water just sounded awesome! So, despite my luck (or lack-thereof) with purchasing perfumes before actually smelling them, this was yet another blind-buy lol Since I was going to have to pay extortionate shipping fees regardless, I figured I might as well purchase a few more items, to even out the shipping cost (I mathed).

I picked up something from the Too Faced collab with Erika Jayne and to qualify for the Too Faced Gift with Purchase also purchased a Too Faced Mascara (travel size). Lastly, since I’d actually sampled Mon Paris earlier (here) and over time, grew to enjoy the scent, I sprung for the YSL Mon Paris Eau de Parfum Set (3oz/90mL + 1oz/30mL).

Since the total for everything was more than $100 I ended up qualifying for both the April Skincare Sample Pack (here) and April Fragrance Sample Pack (here) and the April Bonus Gift (here) and got to pick out 3 samples for free.

Seeing as how popular my previous Zara Perfume posts were (Cashmere Rose is almost always listed in the Top 10 Posts in the side-bar), I picked up a total of x19 Zara Fragrances for around KD 120 to review (but also because I’m kinda’ obsessed with fragrances now and also because I was hoping to find some “hidden gems”). For starters, just like their clothing, Zara regularly comes out with a lot of excellent duplicates or “dupes” of best-selling high-end and designer perfumes.

That said, keep in mind, as with most cheap-y fragrances with a high alcohol content, these do not last as long. As such, most of them were pretty inexpensive (the lowest ranging from KD 4/900 and the highest ranging to KD 10/900)! I’d also like to point out that although certain fragrances might still have the same name, Zara tends to reformulate them (completely switching up the scent) and change the packaging, from year to year. Lastly, these are just my “first impressions” and my opinion is subject to change (so please don’t be offended if you happen to love a certain scent and I don’t).

Others can blame drugs or alcohol… In my case, I’m naturally high (on life) and clinically drunk (lack of sleep) so I can only blame myself for this mistake lol

I’d purchased MAC “Velvet Teddy” ShadeScent Eau de Parfum earlier (haulage here) and was constantly being complimented by everyone (guys, girls, randos) whenever I wore it! Other people’s opinions aside, I had fallen in love with the scent… hard! Since I couldn’t find it locally (even if it’s still in production abroad, they randomly just stop bringing stuff over), I had to start rationing what little I had left.

As luck would have it, I spotted it on Nordstrom so I figured I could keep repurchasing it in twos; one for myself (assuming I was going to run out of it pretty regularly) and one to gift to whomever had asked for it at the time (younger brother, favorite cousin, bestie, etc…). It’s touted as a dupe for Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille, but I love it because it’s different than anything I’ve ever owned up to this point. It just smells so good!

Nordstrom happened to have this promo where if you spent XYZ amount, you got a Skincare Sample Pack (some of them were one-time-use samples while others were deluxe samples), in addition to their usual Sample Pack (x5 pre-selected one-time-use samples, free with every order). Plus, if you spent XYZ amount on MAC stuff, you got a one-time use MAC Mascara (sample) and a MAC Lipstick (full size)!

More often than not, the Velvet Teddy Fragrance was usually out of stock, but once I noticed it was back in stock, even though I was on my way out (week-end), I hurriedly placed the order for what I thought was x2 Velvet Teddy Fragrances and moved a couple of random items from my wishlist (x2 Elizabeth and James Nirvana Dry Shampoo and a Voluspa Candle) to qualify for all the promos and such (I figured since I was going to be paying for shipping anyway, might as well pick up a handful of other stuff to make it worthwhile)… little did I know that they would ship the items separately lol

I was really happy with my previous haulage from Nordstrom (here) so when I noticed that they were having another really cool promo, I decided to place another order. Plus, it was mah birthday (not that I needed an excuse to shop, since we’ve already established that I’m clearly a shopaholic). Basically, the promo was if you spent $135 (around KD 40) on Fragrances (including Eau de Toilettes and Eau de Perfumes and even Scented Candles), you qualified for the Gift With Purchase, which happened to be a pack of Fragrance Samples (haulage here)! As you can see, the items arrived individually wrapped in packing paper, in a rather large (practically empty) cardboard box also stuffed with packing paper. It’s not pretty, but hey, it works (everything arrived safely and undamaged)!